Shakespeare portrays the fleeting nature of human glory. King Richard II, on the verge of surrender to his rebellious cousin Bolingbroke, talks about the nature of temporal power and death. He talks about graves, epitaphs and worms. He explains how even monarchs leave nothing behind as their own except a small patch of land in which they are buried. The dejected king talks on various ways kings get killed. Some are slain in the battle field, some poisoned to death by their own spouses.
The kings who believed their bodies to be impregnable brass are shattered by just a pinprick. In fact, death is in supreme command which waits for the king, and only allows the king to act as if he were ruling and in control of everything. He chides his loyal friends who still believe that he is a monarch and tells them that he is an ordinary mortal just like them. He is humbled as he is powerless before the impending death.
